A supercharged slice of 1960s Americana is heading for the gallery floor. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will place a 1963 Studebaker Avanti R2, once owned by industrial design legend Raymond Loewy, at the centre of its newly opened David Geffen Galleries this April.
The car forms part of a broader exhibition exploring car culture through photography, sculpture and painting, with a particular focus on Southern California.
It’s a bold curatorial move for a major art institution, but the Avanti makes a compelling case. Loewy – the mind behind the Coca-Cola bottle silhouette, the Shell logo and even elements of Skylab – penned the Avanti during Studebaker’s turbulent early-1960s fight for survival.
Commissioned by company president Sherwood Egbert and styled in Palm Springs, the project went from clay model to production in just 40 days.
Launched in 1962, the Avanti paired dramatic, otherworldly styling with a fibreglass body and a 289-cubic-inch V8.
Buyers could specify a supercharger, and the range-topping R3 variant would later crack 170mph at Bonneville, briefly claiming the title of world’s fastest production car.
LACMA’s example is one of two R2s personally owned by Loewy. Period modifications include subtle three-tone paintwork, aluminium detailing and cable-operated exhaust cut-outs – proof that its designer valued theatre as much as aesthetics.
Recently restored after more than a decade in the museum’s collection, it now sits just minutes from the Petersen Automotive Museum, underlining how seriously California treats the automobile as art.
